Methods of forming wire springs and welding contacts to the springs

ABSTRACT

Certain types of wire spring assemblies include a plurality of parallel, spaced wires extending from opposite sides of a block formed of an insulating material. A plurality of the wire spring assemblies are loaded into a rack and the rack is attached to a dispensing mechanism for feeding serially successive wire block assemblies from the rack. Adjacent pairs of the wire springs extending from one side of the block are twisted together and coined. The opposite ends of the wire springs are coined and have contacts welded thereto. Portions of the wire springs extending from both sides of the wire block are formed at offset angles and are thereafter loaded into another rack which is attached to an unloading mechanism so that the completed wire spring assemblies may be transferred to a subsequent assembly station and used in the formation of a switching assembly.

METHODS OF FORMING WIRE SPRINGS AND WELDING CONTACTS TO THE SPRINGS [751 Inventor:

WilliamC. Kent, Franklin, Ohio Assignee: Western Electric Company,Incorporated, New York, NY.

F'i'l'edi' "oat. 29,1971

App1.N0.: 193,833

Related US. Application Data Division of Ser. No. 7,029, Jan. 30, 1970,Pat. No. 3,703,029.

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 11/1958 McCain et al.140/149' 12/1954 Myers etal. 219/4 11/1956 Myers 219/74 5/1960Todoroff.. 198/19 11/1960 5/1971 Johnson 140/119 1 Spadoni et al.140/149 Oct. 16, 1973 2,807,868 10/1957 Knapp et a1. 29/155.55 2,846,8328/1958 Larsen et al. 53/60 Primary Examiner-Charles W. Lanham AssistantExaminerJames R. Duzan AttorneyW. M. Kain et a].

[5 7] ABSTRACT Certain types of wire spring assemblies include aplurality of parallel, spaced wires extending from opposite sides of ablock formed of an insulating material. A plurality of the wire springassemblies are loaded into a rack and the rack is attached to adispensing mechanism for feeding serially successive wire blockassemblies from the rack. Adjacent pairs of the wire springs extendingfrom one side of the block are twisted together and coined. The oppositeends of the wire springs are coined and have contacts welded thereto.Portions of the wire springs extending from both sides of the wire blockare formed at offset angles and are thereafter loaded into another rackwhich is attached to an unloading mechanism so that the completed wirespring assemblies may be transferred to'a subsequent assembly stationand used in the formation of a switching assembly. I

10 Claims, 50 Drawing Figures Patented Oct. 16,1973 3,765,084

19 Sheets-Sheet 1 A T TORNEV Patented Oct. 16, 1973 3,765,084

19 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Get. 16, 1973 19 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Oct.16, 1973 3,765,084

19 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented Oct. 15, 1973 19 Sheets-Sheet J lllll.

Patent ed Oct. 16, 1973 19 shets s t 10 w mow QM \GNM MQN Gw\ 3w TIL Ms? RN WNW OWN Patented Oct. 16, 197 3 19 Sheets-Sheet 15 Patented Oct.16, 1973' 3,765,084

19 Sheets-Sheet l4 'llllll lllll Patented Oct. 16, 1973 19 Sheets-Sheet15 FIG. 49

FIG. 48

Patented Oct. 16,1973 3,765,084

19 Sheets-Sheet 16 Patented Oct. 16, 1973 19 Sheets-Sheet 17 PatentedOct. 16,1973 3,765,084

19 Sheets-Sheet 18 Patented ()ct. 16, 1973 19 Sheets-Sheet-19

1. A method of forming wire-like articles in desired configurations,which comprises the steps of: applying aligning forces adjacent to endsof adjacent selected wire-like elements to move the ends substantiallytogether in juxtaposed, substantially parallel alignment; applyingclamping forces to juxtaposed portions of the adjacent selectedwire-like elements at an intermediate portion thereof spaced from theends of the elements; moving the application of the aligning forces overintermediate portions of the selected elements along a mutual axisthereof and away from the aligned ends thereof while continuing theapplication of the aligning forces to the selected elements andsimultaneously moving the continued application of the application ofthe clamping forces along the intermediate portions of the selectedelements and away from the aligned ends of the adjacent selectedelements to a position which is a fixed distance from the ends of theselected articles so that a selected intermediate portion of thewire-like elements are clamped at the fixed-distance position and theportions thereof which extend to the ends of the selected articles aremaintained in juxtaposition and parallel with the mutual axis inpreparation for and during a subsequent twisting together of thewire-like elements, and applying torsional forces to the aligned ends ofthe selected wire-like elements about the mutual axis of the elementsthe fixed distance from the position of application of the clampingforces about the juxtaposed portions of the wire-like elements fortwisting together portions of at least selected ones of a plurality ofthe wire-like elements to form a wire-like article.
 2. The method as setforth in claim 1, which further includes the step of forming in aselected configuration a portion of at least one wire-like element ofthe article.
 3. The method as set forth in claim 2, which furthercomprises the step of securing at least one contact to a portion of atleast one wire-like element of the article.
 4. The method as set forthin claim 1, which further comprises the step of moving successivewire-like elements into a position for the twisting of the elements toform the wire-like article.
 5. The method as set forth in claim 1, whichfurther comprises the steps of: attaching the wire-like elements to acarrier for transporting the elements to a position whereat the elementsare twisted together; moving the carrier through a gravity-feed trackwhich communicates with an indexing feed track; directing the carrierfor movement from the gravity-feed track into and through theindexing-feed track, and indexing the carrier through the feed track toselectively position the article at the position whereat the elementsare twisted together.
 6. The method as set forth in claim 5, whichfurther comprises the step of directing the carrier into a secondgravity-feed track which communicates with the indexing-feed track tomove the carrier to a position whereat other wire-like elements can beattached to the carrier for movement to the position whereat theelements are twisted together.
 7. A method of feeding at least onearticle to a work station, which comprises the steps of: attaching anarticle to a carrier for transporting the article to a work station;moving the carrier through a gravity-feed track which communicates withan indexing-feed track; directing the carrier for movement into andthrough the indexing-feed track which is adjacent to the work station,and indexing the carrier through the feed track to selectively positionthe article at a work station.
 8. The method as set forth in claim 7,which further comprises the step of transferring the article from thecarrier and into the work station.
 9. The method as set forth in claim7, which further comprises the step of directing the carrier into asecond gravity-feed track which communicates with the indexing-feedtrack to move the carrier to a position whereat another article can beattached to the carrier.
 10. A method of forming wire-like articles indesired configurations, which comprises the steps of: applying aligningforces adjacent to ends of adjacent selected wire-like elements to movethe ends substantially together in juxtaposed, substantially parallelalignment; moving the application of the aligning forces overintermediate portions of the selected elements along a mutual axisthereof and away from the aligned ends thereof while continuing theapplication of the aligning forces to the selected elements; applyingclamping forces to juxtaposed portions of the adjacent selectedwire-like elements a fixed distance at an intermediate portion thereofspaced from the ends of the elements, and applying torsional forces tothe alignEd ends of the selected wire-like elements about the mutualaxis of the elements the fixed distance from the application of theclamping forces about the juxtaposed portions of the wire-like elementsfor twisting together portions of at least selected ones of a pluralityof the wire-like elements to form a wire-like article.